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Artemis Fowl (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Author | Eoin Colfer |
|---|---|
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Series | Artemis Fowl series |
| Genre(s) | Children's, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Publication date | 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 067091133X |
| Followed by | Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident |
Artemis Fowl is a teen fantasy novel written by Irish author Eoin Colfer. It is the first book in the Artemis Fowl series, and is followed by Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident. Described by its author as "Die Hard with fairies,"[1] it follows the adventures of 12-year-old Artemis Fowl, a criminal mastermind.
Throughout the book, the third-person narration switches repeatedly from following the human characters to following the fairy characters, using this to maintain underlying themes of greed and conflict. The book received a favourable critical response, and several awards.
Contents |
Artemis Fowl was first published in May, 2001 by Viking Children's Books.[2] It was released as a hardcover book in England and Ireland with ISBN 067091133X.
It was first released in the USA as a hardcover in May 2001 by Miramax[3] before a paperback edition was released in September 2001 in England and Ireland, and then later in the US.
Though young Artemis Fowl the Second comes from a legendary family of criminals, the Fowls had lost a great deal of their fortune when his father Artemis Senior was apparently killed in the Arctic while carrying out a business scheme. Artemis’ mother, Angeline, has gone insane from the grief of losing her husband. Determined to restore the Fowl fortune and establish his own reputation as an evil genius mastermind, Artemis – aided by his bodyguard / enforcer, Butler, as well as Butler’s sister (and Angeline’s servant) Juliet – hatches a plan to steal fairy gold. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Artemis strikes a bargain with a drunken fairy: he cures her of her alcoholism and restores her magic in exchange for a look at her copy of The Book, the guide that all fairy carry of the rules and rituals of their people. Making electronic copies of The Book, Artemis returns to Fowl Manor in Ireland and decodes it, making the secrets of the fairy people his own. In the underground world of The People – as fairies call themselves, the same way they call humans Mud People – Captain Holly Short is the first female office of the Lower Elements Police recon unit, better known as the LEPrecon, the true organization behind the leprechaun myth.
After a botched Recon of a runaway troll, Holly goes to complete the Ritual. This consists of burying an acorn from certain ancient oaks located at bends in a river, somewhere else, and is the only way for faries to regain their magic. Artemis and Butler, however, have been on stakeout at this very site, and they capture Holly with a dart rifle.
The LEP are very conserned at this point; their fears of a cross-species war seem to be coming true. This is only made worse by the diversion planned by Artemis. Commander Root, having reactivated himself especially for this important mission, follows Holly's locater beacon to a whaling ship in port. After descending into the freezer room, Artemis talks to him through a radio, or some other remote device. Artemis then detonates a bomb in the ship, and Commander Root barely escapes alive.
An LEPretrieval team is sent to scout Fowl Manor. Using their magical ability of "shielding", which allows them to vibrate faster than the eyes can follow, they manage to enter the manor grounds. Artemis had anticipated this through his knowledge of The Book, however. He had installed a camera with an incredibly high frames-per-second rate. The frame by frame reveals the threat, and Artemis crafts a shield-filter using Holly's gutted helmet, allowing Butler to incapacitate them. Root decides to lay siege to Fowl Manor using a time-stop, and negotiations are entered - the ransom demand is one metric ton of 24-carat gold. Artemis uses the opportunity to reveal his knowledge of the time-stop which the fairies applied as part of the siege, and implies that he can escape it.
The attempts to gain entry to the manor continue as criminal kleptomaniac dwarf, Mulch Diggums, is recruited to break in. Faries are forbidden from entering a Human dwelling, at the cost of extreme nausea, and the loss of their magic. Mulch, however, has already broken this rule, and is immune to the adverse consequences. He tunnels underground to reach the house, and Foaly feeds a loop to the cameras, allowing him to freely explore. Mulch locates a safe containing a copy of the Book, and so the Fairies finally know how Artemis knows so much about them. The Fairy Council decide that nothing is working and promote a lieutenant called Briar Cudgeon to Acting Commander, taking Julius Root's position. He sends a troll in to force the humans to allow them entry. Meanwhile, Holly Short remembers an acorn she dropped in her boot, and cracks through the concrete of her cell to complete the Ritual, regain her magic, and escape from her cell.
She begins her rampage by punching Artemis in the nose, and retriving a helmet. Little does she know that it has been tampered with by Artemis, and many features do not work. She hears Foaly broadcasting a warning that a troll is on its way in, and she flies into the main room to see what she can do. Butler is there as the troll enters, and sees it as the awesome predator that it is. He delivers a precise (but ineffective) spread of bullets into its skull. The troll charges him, and delivers several fatal blows, finally throwing him into a wall, horribly contorting his spine. Butler accepts his impending fate.
Holly recognizes the very troll that she had helped capture in her failed Recon, several hours ago. She intervenes because the troll is about to kill and eat Juliet, an innocent. She tries to incapacitate the troll in the same way that she had - shining the high beams on her helmet directly into his eyes. However, the wires have been cut by the tampering performed by Artemis. She futilely headbuts the troll, with the unforseen consequence of touching the two wires together, momentarilly blinding the troll. She, too, is thrown to the wall, where she is knocked unconcious. Her hand lands on Butler's arm, and her magic automatically begins to heal him.
Suddenly awake, and unaware of how it is possible, Butler prepares for a second round with the troll. He dons medieval armor from one of several decorative suits in the manor, and wields a mace. He moves in on the troll, carefully soothing it with his voice, before striking viciously and mercilessly. He strikes at its tendons, knocking it to the floor, and is about to kill it with gunshots under the chin, but Holly - having recently regained conciousness through the use of her own magic - pleads for him to let it go. He does, dragging the troll to the cart it was sent in, and pushing it away.
Artemis is granted the ransom, because of the footage taken when Commander Root went in to negotiate. At the end of the meeting, the psycho-analysts finally catch the fact that Artemis said, "None of your kind are allowed in this manor while I am alive". They interpret this as tantamount to an invitation, after his death. The feel that if they give him the ransom, he will release Holly, and they will send in a 'Blue-Rinse' a bomb that destroys all living things in a predefined area, but leaves no other trace. After his death, they will be free to enter, and take back possesion of his newly won gold.
The gold is sent in, and Artemis is overjoyed. However, he has some conflicting emotions regarding the morality of the crime. He asks Holly for a wish - to cure his mother from insanity (Angeline has been living in the attic, driven mad by the shocking loss of her husband) - which she grants at the cost of half the gold. The LEP send in the bomb, but Artemis is prepared. Artemis calls for a celebration immediately after Holly leaves with her portion of the gold. He gives himself, Butler, and Juliet champagne dosed with carefully considered amounts of sleeping pills.
The LEP, having detonated the bomb in the manor, suit up in radiation outfits - for fear of residual radiation left over by the bomb, regardless of Foaly's reassurances - and enter the house. Immediately, they keel over and start to vomit as they are violating a Fairy law against entering dwellings. Holly, however, is unaffected - the previous invitation of Artemis kidnapping her still stands. She searches the manor, and finding no bodies, must accept that Artemis is the first human in the world to have outsmarted the fairies. The gold is his to keep.
When Butler wakes, he demands an explanation from Artemis for why they were drugged, and Artemis explains that by changing one's state of wakefulness in a time-stop, one could overcome its effects, because it was only their consciousness that kept them trapped by the time-stop. At the end of the book, the LEP have failed to get back the remaining ransom, and Artemis has decided to restrict himself to more tasteful ventures in the future.
Artemis Fowl has a number of underlying themes, but the most essential of these are greed and the conflict between so-called good and evil.[4][5]
Greed is the first main theme that is introduced into the book[6], and specifically the desire to obtain gold. It is likely that the idea behind this desire stems from the historic regard that gold is associated with power, and that it is power that Artemis is trying to obtain. In a similar manner to other themes in the book, it changes throughout, becoming less of a focus near to the end of the novel, where he is willing to part with a large sum of money to help someone else.
The idea of conflict between good and evil is one that is touched upon in the book in a light hearted manner - although Artemis sees himself as an evil genius at the beginning of the book,[7] and it is indeed this image that is portrayed, the end of the story brings this idea into doubt as well when he pays to help his mother. The fairies would take the good side in this view, but this can also be questioned - they are as determined as Artemis to achieve their goals and ruthlessly deploy a troll, regardless of the possible danger to life, to try and force Artemis into submission.[8]
At the bottom of each page of the book, a string of symbols appear. These symbols are supposedly Gnommish, but are really part of a substitution cipher which, when decoded, reveals a message. The message runs throughout the book's pages. It can be deciphered using a section of the book's text which gives a passage in Gnommish from The Book of the People, and then its English translation. The code speaks of the storyline of this book, and its sequel; the Gnommish cipher key can be found in The Artemis Fowl Files.
In general, the book received a very positive critical response - it was on the New-York Times best-sellers list, the Publisher's Weekly best-sellers list and received the Garden State Teen Book Award (2004), among other awards.[9]
A number of reviews were written about the book. The New York Post said "Artemis Fowl is great ... a new thriller fairy tale that will grab your interest, no matter your age."[10] and the Library Journal said "Fun to read, full of action and humour, this is recommended for all public libraries and to readers of all ages."[11]
The majority of internet reviews and review websites also agreed that Artemis Fowl was a good book. The Amazon.com official review highly complemented the book, saying "Fantastic stuff from beginning to end, Artemis Fowl is a rip-roaring, 21st century romp of the highest order."[12] and the book was also generally well received by the public, with an average score of 4/5 from Amazon users.[13]
Reviews, however, were not all positive. The USA Today's review was scathing, coming to the conclusion: "All the familiar action-flick clichés are trotted out: the backstabbing, politically astute subordinate; the seemingly loony but loyal computer expert; the dabs of family loyalty; the requisite happy ending; the utterly unsubtle plugs for the sequel; the big action scenes. ... Resist the hype, parents, booksellers and librarians. This is not the new Harry Potter, nor is it a good children's book."[14]
- Artemis Fowl II, the character.
- Artemis Fowl (series), the series.
- Artemis Fowl Book Covers From Around The World.
- Official Site.
- Colfer, Eoin. (2001). Artemis Fowl. Viking Children's Books. Paperback: ISBN 067091133X
- ^ Fran Atkinson (October 2, 2005). The Age. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
- ^ Amazon Books. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
- ^ Amazon Books. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
- ^ MonkeyNotes. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
- ^ Bookrags. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
- ^ Colfer, Eoin (April 2001). Artemis Fowl, 16 - 18.
- ^ Book Notes. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
- ^ Book Notes. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
- ^ Artemis Fowl Reviews. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
- ^ Liz Smith. New York Post. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
- ^ Library Journal. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
- ^ Susan Harrison. Amazon. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
- ^ Amazon. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
- ^ Deirdre Donahue. USA Today. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
| Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl | |
|---|---|
| Main series: | Artemis Fowl | The Arctic Incident | The Eternity Code | The Opal Deception | The Lost Colony | The Time Paradox |
| Related books: | The Seventh Dwarf | The Artemis Fowl Files |
| Graphic novels: | Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel |
| Other media: | Artemis Fowl (film) |
| Main Characters | |
| Humans: | Artemis Fowl | Domovoi Butler | Juliet Butler | Minerva Paradizo |
| The People: | Holly Short | Foaly | Julius Root | Mulch Diggums | Trouble Kelp | Opal Koboi | Other characters |
| Groups: | Organizations | Types of Fairies | Locations | Fairy Languages | Magic and Technology |